PS5 Reportedly Being Discussed with Devs, But the Tech Isn’t There for a Generational Leap

When will Sony unleash the PlayStation 5? We’ve recently received some conflicting info – earlier this month, a report stating that PS5 dev kits are already in the wild and that a 2018 release might be possible made the rounds, but Kotaku later refuted those details in a report of their own, saying the PS5 probably isn’t coming until at least 2020.

Now the usually-reliable Eurogamer has waded into the fray. According to Digital Foundry editor Richard Leadbetter, Sony’s lead console architect Mark Cerny has been “hitting the road” to touch base with developers and get their thoughts on what needs to be included in the PlayStation 5, but that’s about as far as the process is right now. Full dev kits definitely aren’t a thing yet.

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As for when the PS5 will arrive, late 2019 is probably the earliest you can expect the machine, with 2020 being more likely. Leadbetter bases this prediction on the tech currently available – Sony simply wouldn’t be able to offer a true generational leap in power in compact console form at an affordable price with what’s out there right now. The PS5 will most likely use the smaller, denser 7nm chip manufacturing process and super-speedy GDDR6 memory, neither of which will be ready for big-time mainstream production until 2019.

But hey, it sounds like the PS5 will be worth the wait. Leadbetter speculates the PS5 will be powered by an APU composed of an AMD 8-core Ryzen CPU and a Navi-based GPU (which is similar to what we heard before) and should deliver true high-end desktop-level performance. Of course, take all this with a grain of salt, but again, Eurogamer is a very reliable source when it comes to gaming hardware rumors – do check out their full article for a lot more juicy tech talk.

So, what are your thoughts on the PS5 coming out in 2019 or 2020? Is the wait too much to bear? Or would you be happy to stick with the PS4 even longer?